The present invention generally relates to a butter product and to a method of making the butter product. More particularly, the present invention relates to the butter product that has a particular crystalline structure, where the particular crystalline structure reforms upon melting and re-solidification of the butter product. Additionally, the present invention relates to the butter product with the particular structure where a stable and homogenous mixture of aqueous phase and fat phase components exists when the butter product is melted.
Butter preparation methods represent some of the oldest techniques for preserving fat components that are found in milk. Butter manufacture has been accomplished in one form or another for over 4500 years. Over the centuries, butter has been used in sacrificial worship ceremonies, for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, and as a human food.
Butter production techniques generally evolved into more sophisticated techniques as new forms and uses of equipment developed. For example, the barrel churn made its appearance toward the end of the 18th century when non-wooden manufacturing materials entered widespread use in creaming and butter-making equipment. These advances led to advances in cream separation techniques and, by 1879, continuous operation cream separators were known in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Likewise, butter production evolved from an individual farm activity to a factory-based technique with the introduction of milk pooling systems for creamery operation in the 1870s. Later advances in fat quantification techniques, pasteurization, refrigeration, and bacterial culture usage further advanced the art of butter production.
Food preparation plants now prepare a wide variety of food products that often incorporate butter. However, these plants are often unable to adequately handle the butter in preparation for incorporating the butter onto or into finished products. These plants typically melt the butter and thereafter transport the melted butter within the plant via a manifold system. Processes for heating and liquefying butter must be carefully controlled to avoid burning or browning components of the butter. These processes for heating and liquefying butter must be also carefully controlled in an effort to prevent separation of the fat and aqueous components of the melted butter.
Another difficulty often arises in these plants when inadequate temperature control over the long manifold runs sometimes present in these plants allows the melted butter to cool excessively and thereby solidify and plug the manifold runs. This solidification difficulty creates still more difficulties beyond the mere problem of unplugging the manifold runs. Specifically, food production lines that depend upon these manifold systems for supplying melted liquid butter will typically yield off-specification food products when plugged manifold lines disrupt the supply of melted butter to the production lines.
To circumvent this problem, butter substitutes are sometimes used in place of real melted butter. These butter substitutes frequently consist of vegetable oils that include artificial butter flavors. These butter substitutes are clearly inadequate for many food products, because the taste and texture of food products incorporating butter substitutes are typically different in taste, texture, and mouth-feel from food products made with real butter. Consumers generally prefer the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of food products that are made with real butter, as opposed to butter substitutes. Therefore, managers of food preparation plants want an approach that reliably allows real butter incorporation via food production lines.
However, such an approach must necessarily address the other issues noted above, such as the tendency for real butter to burn or brown during melting operations. Additionally, such an approach must necessarily maintain a homogenous mixture of the fat and aqueous phases during transportation of the melted butter and during incorporation of the melted butter into food products. Furthermore, such an approach should avoid the problems raised by long manifold runs and inadequate manifold temperature control sometimes present in these plants that allows the melted butter to sometimes solidify and plug the manifold runs. The novel butter product of the present invention achieves these various objectives and thereby provides food preparation plant managers with beneficial alternative approach to reliably incorporating real butter in food products via food production lines.